The Year of the Rabbit

Season 2 of Soul Path Sessions opens with Deborah and Brenda once again stretching their therapist muscles beyond the boundaries of traditional psychology and exploring the characteristics and possibilities that inform the Year of the Rabbit. The rabbit (兔) is the fourth in the twelve-year periodic sequence (cycle) of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. Each animal represented in the Chinese zodiac have different personality traits that are believed to influence one's life and are used to provide guidance on how people live their lives.  Many believe that the turmoil and change that the previous year (tiger) brought about will be followed by a more peaceful 12 months. However, the energy of the rabbit and what it may bring with it is worth considering in order to take advantage of the opportunities and face the challenges that could lie ahead. Deborah and Brenda share their own personal experiences about using Animal Medicine to guide them and offer extremely helpful advice on being able to interpret what the Year of the Rabbit may mean for you.

Episode Transcript

Announcer (00:09):
Welcome to the Soul Path Sessions podcast with
Deborah Minds Pearson and BrendaLittleton.
Brenda is an educator andcounselor rooted in YY and
ecopsychology.
She helps her clients understandthe importance of the mind,
body, spirit, and earthrelationship for healing.
Deborah is a licensedpsychotherapist and has been
trained in traditional andsacred psychology, exploring

(00:31):
from the ground up what makesour human experience meaningful,
wholesome, and enlightening.
Deborah and Brenda invite you toaccompany them on a soul path
journey as they explore thepossibilities of living them
soulful life as therapists,seekers and lovers of fate.

Deborah (00:52):
Welcome back to Soul Path Sessions.
This is Deborah mz Pearson.
I'm here with my dear friend,fellow healer and soul, Brenda
Littleton, and today we're gonnatalk about the year of the
rabbit.

Brenda (01:05):
Wonderful.

Deborah (01:06):
So Brenda, you are brimming, hopping with ideas,
.
So I wanna ask you, you, youwere inspired to talk about this
topic, so I really wanna let youopen up and tell us what you
know.

Brenda (01:18):
Well, I've been observing how, um, the memes and
the social media are talkingabout, oh my gosh, it's sub
relief.
It's the year of the rabbit, youknow, the year of the tiger has
handed over, uh, the baton andit's no longer, um, times of
rough or aggression or a senseof trials and tribulations.

(01:41):
Mm-hmm.
that the year ofthe rabbit is more of a, um, a
soft, uh, softening, let's say,um, an ease, a sense of
reflection.
And, uh, I, I'm amused by it andI, I guess I don't really fully,
truly understand all of thoseramifications because for me,

(02:01):
uh, developing a nomenclaturewith animals and, and meaning,
and we're going through my owntrials and tribulations and in
dealing with my own myth, uh,the rabbit, the bunny has always
meant it, it's been a queuingsystem for me of an outside
stimuli of fear.

(02:22):
Yeah.
So whatever is going on for meon the outside, whether it's
traffic or anxiety, or if I'mdealing with the bank, or, uh, I
have a specific instance that I,I remember looking at my plate
glass windows, and there was awhole lineup of 12 bunnies
looking in and watching memm-hmm.
on their haunches,you know, sitting up and just
looking and appearing at me.

(02:42):
And I realized, oh, this is, I'min a very stressful, personally
activated, fearful conversationgoing on, and I needed, so they
were alerting me that mm-hmm.
, is this how youwanna handle it?
Is this how you want to betoday?
Is this how you want to dealwith a situation from a place of

(03:03):
fear?
Mm-hmm.
.
So, um, I, today, I think we canunpack some of the, uh,
society's ideas of what the dayof the year of the rabbit is.
Mm-hmm.
.
And I'd like to hear from youwhat, um, your research has, has
brought to the table as

Deborah (03:18):
Well.
Yeah.
See, it was interesting causeI'm on the same page with you in
terms of animal medicine,because I come at, at it from an
am am Aminal medicine,,and, um, that waly web Love

Brenda (03:29):
It.


Deborah (03:30):
Love it.
So in, in, uh, many traditions,you look at the quality of the
animal to to sort of understandits medicine, its spirit.
And what is true about rabbitsis they stand very still, and
they wait.
They're very alert, and at thefirst line of danger, they're

(03:50):
very alert.
They're, I their ears are bigfor a reason.
They're gonna be gone.
They're gonna be outta there.
So in many traditions, they arevery synonymous with fear.
And I know in some of thedefining tarots that have to do
with, uh, animal medicine cards,if you pull rabbit, you're
facing fears.
Yeah.
So I think that for me, and I'vehad a time when rabbit medicine

(04:14):
entered my life, and I literallyhad a black bag with two rabbits
on it, but I, I didn't reallyput two and two together, but I
can tell you that that bag, whatI pulled out of it later, the

Brenda (04:30):
putting the rabbit out of the bag, oh,

Deborah (04:32):
I pulled some major fears outta that bag.
I had written something, it wasa long journey for me.
But I remember when I cameacross this black bag with the
two rabbits on it that I hadgotten at a, a conference I was
at that the contents of that bagchanged my life.
It swept away.
Yeah.
My old life and swept in a newlife.
It wasn't bad.

(04:53):
It was just extremely dynamic.
So when I saw a rabbit about,uh, a month ago when you and I
were talking about this show,uh, I was on a walk and I saw a
rabbit sitting, uh, on a lawn.
I never wrote a haiku.
This kind of typifies it earsalert.

(05:14):
You sit, if I make one smallmovement, the ground is empty.
.

Brenda (05:25):
So the idea of being aware mm-hmm.
of when a rabbitis present or the energy of
rabbit mm-hmm.
, um, I'm, I liveon acreage where I'm aware when
there are not rabbits.
I mean, I used to have hundredsof rabbits and then the rabbit
flew, came, and then they allleft, and now they're back.

(05:48):
Uh, I do, um, I was taught, um,in, in a doctoral program to
live by metaphors every singleday.
Look out your window.
Window, what do you see?
Follow the breadcrumbs and makemeaning out of what's vis
visually outside of your myspace.
And so I'm constantly aware ofrabbit and, and I stop and I

(06:12):
pause and I'm thinking, what,what is it that I'm talking
about?
Or what is it?
Because I'm sitting with clientson Zoom and I'm looking out the
window mm-hmm.
, and maybethere'll be 20 rabbits all of a
sudden.
Yeah.
And it really informs me.
Mm-hmm.
, I may not inaggressively or assertively
change the conversation and say,let's talk about your fears

(06:32):
right now.
Mm-hmm.
, you know, I willlisten though with a frequency
for what am I picking up?
Is there any resistance?
Is there any, uh, with

Deborah (06:41):
Those big

Brenda (06:42):
Ears of yours mm-hmm.
, I know, yeah.
I've become the rabbit.
Mm-hmm.
, I start embodyingthat.
And for me personally, it'sgonna be a, a, a year of a lot
of change that I'm, uh, I'mfacing the next layer of fears
mm-hmm.
, um, myself.
So I thought it was reallyappropriate as a support for my
personal, my professional, myembodiment, my health, my

(07:06):
creativity.
Mm-hmm.
of how does thisumbrella of the year of the
rabbit trickle down and seepinto each of those layers for
me.
Mm-hmm.
.
So I'm, I'm kind of unpackingthat as, as I move forward.
Now, we're in the beginning ofthe year and, but I, I do find a
sense of resistance when I'mseeing all of this very, um, oh,

(07:28):
this is gonna be such a relaxingyear.
This is gonna be such adifferent year from last year.
And I go, Ooh, you know,there's, there's something in me
that says that's, that'sprobably not going to happen.
And if we can convert thatmm-hmm.
mm-hmm.
, if we can, as yousay, move into the spirit of the
animal Yeah.
And, and ask people to, uh, beaware of what the energy and the

(07:52):
properties of the rabbit meansfor them, and how does it show
up in their lives.

Deborah (07:57):
Yeah.
I think that it, it's, uh,there's so many levels you can
take this.
I mean, if it's a medicinestory, I mean, in the Chinese
Zodiac, there's 10 animals in 11year cycle.
And the story is all about howthey got to the infinite to the,
it's called the heavenly gate.

(08:18):
So it's a race towards the jadeemperor to get to the heavenly
gate.
So first of all, you have to besomewhat aware of Asian culture,
Chinese culture.
And if we think of that in termsof our own lives, and we look at
the medicine of each of theseanimals, what they're teaching,
uh, the rabbit comes in forthmaking it to the heavenly gate.

(08:39):
So it's, it's a race that's, uh,interesting because the rat
makes it first cuz the rat juststays on his game, just doesn't,
doesn't have a problem, juststays on his game.
The ox goes really slowly andgets there.
Um, the tiger is the next one.
Um, and then the rabbit.

(09:00):
And then you move into themonkey, the dragon, the snake,
the horse and the goat.
And each one of them shows howthey used, um, oh, I'm sorry.
Then you go the dragon, thesnake, the horse, the goat, the
rooster, the dog, the pig.
So it's meant to be a teachingstory, not to be like a rabbit's
foot of good luck, which is avery American United States sort

(09:22):
of concept.
Like, I'm going to, I'm gonnajust bypass my destiny and find
an oracle.
No, you've got your curriculumat Sacred Curriculum.
And I found it interesting to gointo the qualities they were,
that, that they were talkingabout in the Chinese tradition
was that the, their story iscalled the tortoise and the ox

(09:46):
and the, that matched this one,which is similar to the tortoise
and the hair, which is not arabbit and the asop ESOP fable.
And in the Chinese, um,tradition, it's the same thing.
If you have arrogance, it'sgonna hold you up.
If you think you're gonna getthere real fast, cuz you've got
a, a rabbit's foot and likeyou're unpacking your fears and

(10:08):
you just hold that rabbit's footout or that, or you think you're
gonna hop like a bunny over it.
No, that's not the meaning ofit.
Mm-hmm.
, it means don'tget caught up in your head like
the rabbit sit still pay asteady attention.
Steady attention.
And in the case of the tortoiseand the ox, well they're both

(10:29):
really slow, but the ox makes itahead of the tortoise because he
just doesn't get hung up onanything just like the tortoise
and the hair.
So really it's all about slowand steady wins the race,
arrogance versus quietattention.
Mm-hmm.
.
And it seems to me somethingquite arrogant that, that we, we

(10:51):
project what we want and thenwe're so disappointed.
And I, it, the other piece that,that just seems glaringly, uh,
up upsetting and, and uh,factual is that in the lunar New
Year, there were two, uh,shootings where people were
killed.

(11:12):
And I don't know the individualstory, but I mean, if you, if
you see us as part of acollective, that was hardly a, a
peaceful,

Brenda (11:20):
Soft, gentle entrance.
No.

Deborah (11:23):
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.

Brenda (11:24):
Get our attention.
Yeah.
Um, I love the the adage thatyou can't think your way to
healing and just because youknow what's going on, just
because you get to that place ofunderstanding, um, it doesn't
preclude, uh, the work

Deborah (11:39):
No, it, it's using it skillfully.
Mm-hmm.
skillfully to takethe medicine of rabbit from me,
the, when I saw that rabbit onmy walk in the evening, it was
cold.
And I looked over and blessed tosee a little little bunny.
Now I used to live there.
They were, they were jackrabbits.
They were not bunnies.
They're different.
One has big haunches and kickyour teeth out.

(12:00):
They're

Brenda (12:01):
Run

Deborah (12:01):
Fast.
Yeah, right.
Uh, but with kind of veiny ears.
But the, but the little bunnywas sitting there and there was
something, as I was walking inthe evening troubled, I was
troubled.
There was some family pain goingon in my extended family.
And I went for a walk as I wantto do when I'm troubled.
And when I saw the medicine, Ididn't even, I wasn't even

(12:23):
thinking You're the rabbit,honestly, wasn't cur in my
ecosphere, but it started offwith the rabbit and like you
looking at your window, Iwatched the rabbit watching me
and we both stopped.
And in that quiet attention, Ifelt peaceful.

(12:48):
And that to me was what I neededto be doing with family members
who are not behaving.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
, they, yeah, mostof them do.
But it's difficult with a largefamily.
And I saw pay attention be stillwhen I went to move there was an
empty space.

(13:08):
Yeah.
And I realized that I must movewith very quiet, quiet
attention.
And the other one I got wasprotect yourself.
Yeah.
Keep those big ears.
If you see a predator, apredatory human in the family or
in the anywhere who's comingtowards my energy, I was quick
like a bunny and I was lovingthe empty space.

(13:29):
And I've taken that Yeah.
Because I've ended phoneconversations that were not
loving and not going anywhere.
My bunny nature exit stage leftand I'll come back.
But you must be still inside tohave a conversation with me.

Brenda (13:44):
That's beautiful.
That reminds me of, um, thismoment y y in sharing sitting
with a bunny.
Um, I was outside at my propertyand I have this very large pool
of water for the animals.
Mm-hmm.
, a lot of rabbits.
And this one particular evening,it was feeding time for animals

(14:10):
and I saw this giant, gianthawk.
It wasn't, I thought even itcould have been a baby eagle
mm-hmm.
cuz we get themfrom big bear.
And um, but it was a good threefoot, three feet tall and it was
sitting on the edge, uh, of thiswater and two feet away from it.
Right.
In its view, its eyesight was abunny was a, a pretty small

(14:30):
rabbit.
Mm-hmm.
like this year'scrop.
Mm-hmm.
.
And uh, the rabbit was justmunching on the grass that was
coming up and the hawk wassitting getting water and the
two of them were at least twofeet, you know, not more than
two feet away.
They both knew each other.
Were there.
One was the food of the other.
Mm-hmm.
one was thepredator of the other.

(14:51):
Mm-hmm.
.
And there was this, this calmsense of reprieve mm-hmm.
, there was, okay,you're gonna be the bunny, I'm
gonna be the hawk mm-hmm.
and I'm gonna takecare of my knees and you're
gonna take care of yours.
Mm-hmm.
, and I waswatching all this and I was
waiting like any second, nowthis bunny's gonna get, it's
gonna be eaten.
And the hawk just sat theremm-hmm.
and opened up itsarms and that scared the bunny

(15:13):
and, and it ran away.
But there was no, um, thetransaction was a sense of
acceptance mm-hmm.
and in the face ofdaunting potential fear mm-hmm.
.
So again, it's like that senseof equanimity, the sense of
calmness, the sense of hold yourcourse mm-hmm.
.
Yeah.
Do take care of your needs.
Mm-hmm.

Deborah (15:33):
, I like that.

Brenda (15:34):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
, it was abeautiful transaction.

Deborah (15:36):
And also I think the piece I get, I love that story.
Uh, the other piece that I'venoticed in nature, up in ocean
shores or here, mostly in oceanshores, cuz I have like,
basically floor and faunaeverywhere, but when a predator
comes and it's full, it leavesyou alone.
Yeah.
So the deer are fine.

(15:57):
If, if they sense danger fromsomething that is full, they,
they will run.
But the minute there is no harm,they start eating grass.
Yeah.
It's like somatic therapy.
They, you know, the human beingshold on to our stories that's
called rabbit mind in the nativetradition where you can't stop
worrying and worrying andworrying, but the actual bunny

(16:19):
doesn't worry.
It just watches.
Yeah.
And

Brenda (16:23):
Responds

Deborah (16:24):
According.
It responds.
And if it gets eaten, that's theend of its story for now.

Brenda (16:31):
So in working with our own path this year and with our
clients, um, under the umbrellaof the year of the Rabbit
mm-hmm.
, um, I'm alwayslooking for ways to model
mm-hmm.

(16:52):
to not teach perse, but just hold in continents.
Mm-hmm.
, you know, the,the practice of mm-hmm.
.
What would be some of thesuggestions that we could share?

Deborah (17:07):
Okay.

Brenda (17:08):
Um,

Deborah (17:08):
I have written some down.
Do you have some ideas?
Okay.
Um, well first of all, um, theidea of sometimes when you move
forward you want a zigzag, youdon't wanna go in a straight
line.
If you wanna copy a rabbit, ithops.
If you notice a zigzag, it's azigzag pattern.
Typically.
Um, now that can be applied, itjust, they throw off predators

(17:31):
that way.
Mm-hmm.
, uh, by going inas zigzag.
Um, also it gives him a chanceto sort of go from bush to bush
and see what's there.
So be mindful that it's not thedestination, it's the journey
That would be one of themedicines from the rabbit if you
want to use it.
Wholesomely any year.

(17:55):
Uh, for me, I don't so much golike, oh, it's the year I kind
of see it's part of the Chinesetradition of just a fable story.
Ancient cycle, not necess cycle,not silly part of my cycle, but
fun being the monkey that I am.
Right.
Um, and why are you moving?
I think that would be anothermedicine from Rabbit.

(18:15):
Why are, are you just moving,uh, on the freeway of life?
Are you considerate about whereyou're going to be considerate
about where you're going?
Um, stillness listening, we'vecovered that.
Uh, the other one is goodparenting.
Uh, one of the medicines ofbunnies are very protective of
their babies.
Mm.
They really shelter them.

(18:35):
And I'm, if you don't havephysical children, the, the
protection of that which isinnocent to, you know, put it in
a burro protect

Brenda (18:46):
So projects, creative ventures.

Deborah (18:48):
Yeah.
Nurturing, uh, protecting, um,mothering or fathering so that
the little ones or the innocentcan grow.
That would be really important.
Um, so in my work, I know I havea soul path poetry page and I'm

(19:09):
just boosting it and I'm sendingout my poetry for free.
I'm not selling anything, I'mjust putting in poetry and good
thoughts for the general public.
It was, it cost me 10 bucks topost, to post it, I don't care.
And people are getting healing.
It's my way of mothering andnurturing without expectation of
return because it makes me feelgood and generative to share our

(19:33):
podcast poetry.
Good thoughts.
So that would be rabbitmedicine, the mothering,
nurturing part of it for me.
And the last one, um, and expectlife to be unpredictable.
, come on.
Yeah.
Okay.
So that would be reallyimportant.
And open-minded creativity isanother aspect of, of Rabbit.

(19:53):
Yeah.

Brenda (19:54):
Yeah.
Likewise.
Mm-hmm.
, I, um, I wasreflecting on the idea of, um,
how I survived, how I made myway through the last year of the
rabbit and the, the growth, um,and, and reflecting back that it
wasn't a direct path.

(20:14):
Mm-hmm.
, you know, a lotof zigzagging mm-hmm.
, um, a lot of selfnurturing mm-hmm.
, uh, I moved fromthe idea of having an intention
to having an impact.
Mm-hmm.
, that's my impact.
And, um, and, and you know, Idid burrow, you know, I, I did a
lot of burrowing mm-hmm.
and, and doing alot of gestation harboring, uh,

(20:38):
self-care ideas.
Mm-hmm.
expansion, but ina very underground container
that when I, I popped up there,I felt fully alive mm-hmm.
and was able to,to meet the world on my terms
regardless of the hawk.
Mm-hmm.
, regardless of thecoyote.

(20:59):
They

Deborah (21:00):
Aren't going away.
No, they're not.
They need to eat too.
You know, everybody's got a partin the web of life.
Yeah.
No, no bad animals.

Brenda (21:07):
Yeah.
And, um, showing up and doing mybest.
So Right

Deborah (21:12):
On.
Right on.

Brenda (21:13):
Thank you for all the, the insight on the year, the
bunny.
This is fun.

Deborah (21:17):
I had a good time researching this.

Brenda (21:19):
Good.
Any closing comments?
Any other, uh, ideas for theyear of the bunny?

Deborah (21:25):
Um, I just think it's good to, um, just be reflective
of what it means to you.
And because all Oracles aremeant to be personalized, just
kind of summarize that.
It's not like one size fits all.
Great.

Brenda (21:44):
Thank you.

Deborah (21:46):
You're welcome.
Thank you Brenda.

Brenda (21:47):
Thanks Debra

Deborah (21:49):
.

Announcer (21:52):
And that concludes this week's episode of the Soul
Path Sessions podcast withDeborah Mikes Pearson and Brenda
Littleton.
If you'd like to hear more aboutliving a more soulful life,
please subscribe to our channelon your favorite podcast app and
be sure to check out the shownotes and links below for more
information from visit soulsessions com.

(22:13):
And for Brenda, Brenda, thankyou for listening and remember
to follow.